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Segment of an illustration by Henry Holiday (cut by Joseph Swain) in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876 The segment on the lower right side is Charles Darwin's Tree of Evolution or Tree of Life sketch in his 1st notebook, page 36, 1837-1838. I learned, that Darwin did not keep his notebook secret after the publication of On the Origin of Species , but I do not know of any presentation of his sketch before 1876. Thus, the resemblance between the "weed" and Darwin's evolutionary tree sketch propably is purely incidental. Postprocessing: GIMP perspective transformation tool Questions: (1) When did Charles Darwin publish a facsimile of his sketch fo the first time? When (e.g. in lectures etc.) was it presented for the first time? (2) Or is there a completely different explanation? Holiday's "weed" also could allude to an eagle riding a wild boar .

Detail from Henry Holiday's illustration to the back cover of Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876). I don't unterstand this pattern (if it is a pattern). Perhaps it is not meant to be understood. Or it is no "meaningful" pattern at all. The pattern is clearly distinguishable from its environment. The letter-like shapes shown below the image are the result of very simple linear transformations using GIMP. Yet, I still can't say whether these are letters or just meaningless shapes. Is there any meaning? Should the "letters" be rotated and/or mirrored again? Is there a word game ("Anne I" beside a buoy) related to Anne Boleyn? (In his illustrations, Holiday clearly alluded to other historical figures related to Anne Bolyen, e.g. Queen Elizabeth I.)

An illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876). In the red frame: The missing bell? Blue inset (just fooling around a bit): HMS Beagle Among Porpoises" (1830-1839?) by Robert Taylor Pritchett . The shapes of the vessels are pretty generic, but the lightning rod was a special feature of the HMS Beagle.

[left]: HMS Beagle Among Porpoises (183X) by Robert Taylor Pritchett. [right]: A vessel in an illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876). The shape of the vessels is pretty generic, but William Snow Harris' new lightning conductors were a special feature of the HMS Beagle.

From an illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876). The shown structure could be a fire. Who knows?

The left picture is a segment from an print which shows the burning of Thomas Cranmer . The right picture is a +135° rotated detail from Henry Holiday's illustration to the final chapter of Lewis Carroll' s The Hunting of the Snark, In "The annotaded ... Snark", Martin Gardner wrote about Henry Holiday's illustration to the last chapter of Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark : "Thousands of readers must have glanced at this drawing without noticing (though they may have shivered with subliminal perception) the huge, almost transparent head of the Baker, abject terror on his features, as a giant beak (or is it a claw?) seizes his wrist." · · · · 021 · · There was one who was famed for the number of things · · · · 022 · · · · He forgot when he entered the ship: · · · · 023 · · His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings, · · · · 024 · · · · And the clothes he had bought for the trip. · · · · 025 · · He had forty-two boxes , all carefully packed, · · · · 026 · · · · With his name painted clearly on each: · · · · 027 · · But, since he omitted to mention the fact, · · · · 028 · · · · They were all left behind on the beach. · · · · 029 · · The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because · · · · 030 · · · · He had seven coats on when he came, · · · · 031 · · With three pairs of boots --but the worst of it was, · · · · 032 · · · · He had wholly forgotten his name. · · · · 033 · · He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry, · · · · 034 · · · · Such as " Fry me! " or " Fritter my wig! " · · · · 035 · · To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!" · · · · 036 · · · · But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!" · · · · 037 · · While, for those who preferred a more forcible word, · · · · 038 · · · · He had different names from these: · · · · 039 · · His intimate friends called him " Candle-ends ," · · · · 040 · · · · And his enemies " Toasted-cheese ." · · · · 041 · · "His form is ungainly--his intellect small--" · · · · 042 · · · · (So the Bellman would often remark) · · · · 043 · · "But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, · · · · 044 · · · · Is the thing that one needs with a Snark." · · · · 045 · · He would joke with hyenas, returning their stare · · · · 046 · · · · With an impudent wag of the head : · · · · 047 · · And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear , · · · · 048 · · · · "Just to keep up its spirits," he said. · · · · 049 · · He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late-- · · · · 050 · · · · And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad-- · · · · 051 · · He could only bake Bridecake--for which, I may state, · · · · 052 · · · · No materials were to be had. That is, there were no brides in the crew.

Patterns from an illustration by Henry Holiday (and Joseph Swain) to the chapter The Vanishing in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and a segment of the Allegory of Iconoclasm (or The Image Breakers ) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (c. 1567). (1st version on Flickr: 2010-08-24 )

Segments from • [left, vertically stretched]: Photo (before 1882) of the top of the fireplace in Charles Darwin's study • [center, vertically stretched]: from Alfred Parsons' depiction (1882) of Charles Darwin's study in Down • [right]: an illustration (1876) by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark This is not one of Henry Holiday's allusions. Here Alfred Parsons perhaps alluded to Holiday's illustration. Parsons did not simply copy a photo, he also rearranged the fire place decoration a bit.

Segments from [left, vertically stretched]: The top of the fireplace in Alfred Parsons' depiction (1882) of Charles Darwin's study in Downe [right]: an illustration (1876, printed 1911) by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark Rescaleable formats for printing posters: PDF (7.7 MB) and SVGZ (8.3 MB). (The segment of Alfred Parsons' depiction of Charles Darwin's new study is used here with permission by Dr. John van Wyhe, darwin-online.org.uk/ . Henry Holiday's illustration has been scanned from a 1911 book.)